Max_Chatsworth

Alternate Reality Broadsides Archon II: Adept Jumpman Temple of Apshai Trilogy

My dad came very, very close to buying one of the nearby arcades back in about 1980/81. We lived in a suburb of Kansas City on the Kansas side that was on the very edge of new housing development. After us, it was all woods/farmland. Well one of the first neighborhoods to be built beyond us was for people with much more money than us and the guy who build the first house in there was a guy that owned an arcade near us called Good Time Charlies...one of those old throwback arcades that started life as a pool parlor in the mid 70's and transitioned to a pinball then arcade parlor by the late 70's. Anyway that guys house was a stone throw from ours and my dad met him somehow and they got talking and he was seriously going through the steps/plans for a bit. Good thing he didn't as the crash came a few years later. So I almost worked at one and I was so excited!

It was one of the first games I remember being a regular of mine. In 81, there weren't the sheer variety of game that there were a few years later. I first played it at a local entertainment spot here in Overland Park, KS called King Louis West. It was a bowling alley, ice rink, with a bar/short order restaurant and pool room. That pool room transitioned to pinball then arcade games during my childhood from the late 70's to early 80's.

You couldn't find an assembler so you wrote your own?!?! Hardcore man....

That isn't the definition of multithreaded. Multithreading existed on only 1 CPU.

Really? I feel a little bit the opposite. When I first got back into my old 80's Atari 8 bit hobby 12 years or so ago, I feel like everyone was doing emulation. Now there is an *explosion* of real hardware add-ons and gadgets to make them play in the real world.

My brother and I roo-eened many a controller playing Archon II: Adept. Slurs and accusations of controller tampering were hurled many a time...

Some would say that you are just saying that because you are the Polka King, but I think you are right!

Well I think this qualifies

Yeah..I realized a lot about my parents when I became a parent myself

I know this is under the 2600 forum area, but I never got any Atari console while growing up, and had to endure many of my friends having one while I did not. Most of the kids I knew had a "VCS" and not the "2600" strictly speaking as they got theirs during the late 70's. I had to get stolen time on the next door neighbor boys' set. They were around my age and we were all part of the bigger neighborhood set of friends. As for my first "Atari", my parents got us(5 kids) the Atari 400 computer for Christmas '79, and I got my revenge as many of the kids in our group suddenly became envious of this new more powerful Atari. To them it was little more than a gaming console, but me and one brother of mine put it to good use as a computer, first learning to program on that machine. Christmas '83, my 2nd oldest brother got the 800XL with all the trimmings, which was just his, for Christmas, as he had a real interest in computers by then. He was already a junior and shortly moved on to more jobs/girls/social life, etc..and so I was the lucky beneficiary being the only other basement denizen out of the 5 of us kids still living at home! Like I said, I never got any Atari console growing up, but I did get the ColecoVision for Christmas '82 and I got the NES for Christmas ....I think for Christmas '85..but I'm not sure on the year on that one..but I am pretty sure I was a freshman. Being the 2nd youngest of 5 kids in a very working class family did end up benefiting my younger sister and I as I think my parents realized they had a lot more disposable income for us once the first 3 were out of the house and on their own, and my parents I think made up a little bit for years earlier when they couldn't get us all the things they would have like...which is why I think I actually got those consoles. Who was I to complain?

I remember that distribution, with the Asteroids thrown in. My buddy get a 2600 for Christmas 82, and it had asteroids, which was a great game for the time.

Yoomp! ??

Never saw your timeline before. Pretty cool!

Thanks...those look like good options. It's mainly for my 400 that I use for more home automation /hacking projects than my 800xl that I do more programming on. The 800XL keyboard is fine for me..but ugh...I forgot how awful that 400 keyboard was to use. Inversely great to use with how great it is to look at!

Looking to purchase/build some sort of mod so I can make my 400 keyboard usable while preserving the original form factor. Meaning, I don't want to replace the membrane keyboard, but rather add on some sort of external option. The avenues I have pursued have been a bit of a dead end. I'm fine purchasing or building/modding if I can find clear instructions.

I figured it would require some soldering and similar work, which I'm more than willing to do, but I just don't have the know how to know where to begin.

How would you connect it?

Sorry this is late, but that is *EXACTLY* the type of thing I was thinking of. Can I acquire or build something like that?

Just reaching out again to stay in touch. Wasn't sure how often you log on and if you got my last. I know when I first found AA, I only logged on every few months...now it's every day

I will be making a trip to Galloping Ghost this week and will be posting thoughts, photos, and impressions. It's about time I did something with this blog. Stay tuned...

I will be making a trip to Galloping Ghost this week and will be posting thoughts, photos, and impressions. It's about time I did something with this blog. Stay tuned...

Cool. We go the 400 with a tape drive xmas 79..but it was the whole family's. My brother got his own 800XL with 1702 monitor and conversion cable and Indus GT disk drive for xmas 83..but luckily by that point he was a junior in high school and soon out of the house along with 2 other older siblings...which left those 2 machines pretty much to me! Had to wait until I joined the navy in 90 to have my own money to buy an ST.

Very cool! How old were you when you had this setup and was it yours or your dad's?